AbstractDuring this lesson students make an
association among the reasons for diseases explored
in lesson 2 with social, political, and economic factors.
It will be necessary for students to understand this
connection once again to better understand the historical
presence of epidemics. In doing so they can better
address the questions of: 1) Why did this happen at
this time in history? and 2) How did these epidemics
happen?

ObjectivesStudents will be able to:
1. Analyze and predict social, political, and economic reactions to
the ‘reasons’ diseases become epidemic and share their analysis
in discussion and a chart.
StandardsHistorical Thinking Standards

3E – Analyze
cause-and-effect relationships and multiple causations,
including the importance of the individual, the influence
of ideas, and the role of chance.

3J – Hypothesize
the influence of the past.

4A – Formulate
Historical questions.

5A-
Identify issues and problems from the past.

Teacher Background

Activity
1. Setting the stage. Re-visit
what Social, Political, and Economic means in association
to Human activity. This is a review of knowledge already
addressed
in the 1st quarter. If you have not addressed this earlier, take a little longer
to address this with the students as it is a central feature in many of the
social studies lessons. Ask students to write down the three words in their
notes and to define them. (5 minutes)

Social
Political
Economic

2.
Give each student a handout. Review that the list of
reasons are the same as discussed in
Lesson
2.

3.
Demonstrate what they will have to do by discussing what
the first response would be (see answer key to
help you).

4.
Have them work in pairs to fill out Columns 2 and 3.
(5-10 minutes)

5.
Once finished with the chart, have the class share their
answers and why they chose the
factor they
did for each.

6.
As they share answers write down the better responses
on Overhead 1 and have them
add them
to their notes (if they have not already done
so).
Make
sure that they can convince you of their choice otherwise the answer
cannot be accepted.

7.
Closure. “You are now ready to explore
the first incident in history cited in Lesson 1: The 14th century
in Europe (1347 – 1351) and the
Black Death (Plague) that is estimated to have killed roughly
75 million people in
Europe, Asia, and Africa. You will begin your investigation by
posing the 2 leading questions: 1) Why did the Black Death happen
at this time in
history
in Europe, Asia, and Africa? and 2) How did this epidemic that
killed so many happen in the first place?"

Embedded
Assessment1.
Students’ ability to analyze and predict social,
economic and political factors involved in the spread
of diseases can be assessed during class discussion,
in the responses they provide in the chart, and in their
defense of their responses.

PULSE
is a project of the Community Outreach and Education
Program of the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences
Center and is funded by: